SISTERDAY!!

MAN O MAN! did I have an awesome Friday!!

Nicky and I had our first actual "catch up on each other" day since we got back. IT WAS AWESOME!!
She picked me up at Ikea, we had breakfast there, and did some walking around. When we go with the guys, it usually turns into a "hit and run, follow the shopping list, no time to look at anything" thing, so this was a great start of the day. Mike dropped me off on the way to work, and she would have to pass it on the way to our place, so.... seemed logical to both of us.

After that we went to this old farmhouse, turned into hotel/restaurant and spent the rest of the day. We got home at 10.30! What did we do? Nothing at all, but talk! we used to live a couple doors from each other, and spent a lot of time together, when she got married and moved away, we would get together at least once every couple of weeks, and catch up. Than I moved to the US, and we chatted on ICQ, sent emails, and when we both had the feeling the other could cheering up, we called. We never made it back, but her and Willem came to visit twice, and once with the kids. They sent us tickets to come to Singapore while they were living there, so we did see eachother a couple of times. Since Christmas after I got sick, we skyped, but there's nothing that supersedes sitting across from each other, with a cup of tea, and just talking about anything and everything, without regard for cost, anybody butting in or having to do something else. We had it planned, and before dinner, we had the next one planned! We are going to do this, every couple of weeks, no longer than 5 apart....... I am SOOOO looking forward to it. Since we had a lot of stuff to catch up on, we went out. Not sure what next time will be, We considered the zoo, but the kids will want to go there too, so maybe not - we considered me going up and shopping in Eindhoven, maybe stay the night and have Mike pick me up the next day, and all of us spending that day together,  but we did decide to stay at our place soon, so I can fill her in on schrapbooking, both digital and paper. Don't know if I will convert her in starting, because she works 40 hours in the office, and some at home, has 2 kids of her own, and 3 more that consider her house home so... she's busy! If she looks interested, maybe I can talk her into letting me do the "hard work" of making pages for her LOL.

And I can't believe it, and almost don't have the heart to put it out there, but..... we didn't take one picture! I had the camera, and I had every intention to have the waitress take a picture of us, but it never happened! I can download pictures of the place from their website, and I probably will, and than I'll just have to journal that we were there.... Can't believe I did that! LOL

Since I couldn't sleep, I also played with a new kit I received from StarSongStudio. It's called sweet Remembrance. The minute I saw it, I knew I had the perfect picture for it. My favorite tree in Marshalltown. It was taken down after we moved out. The neigbor thought it was in our way, since its branches covered the driveway and had been asking if we wanted them to take it down..... Guess the new owners said yes. I loved that tree! Could't wait for the first flowers in spring to show up, and again in the fall. I thought they only bloomed once, and I was so happy to be wrong!

Since it wasn't our tree, I had to wait till the wind ripped a branch off, that still had flowers on it. I took them into the house, and held them against our apple-green wall in the little room off the kitchen. When the house was victoria, that area housed the spiral staircase. When the house burned in the 1920's, the stairs were re-positioned more to the center of the house and the "little octagon" room was created and formed a pass through from the kitchen to the living-room. (The reason we know the stairs were there, is because in the basement, you could still see the outlines of the steps, and the wallpaper.)

I have no idea why the pictures came out the way they did, but I think they look very victorian. It was kind of a dreary day, just having gone thru the outskirts of a tornado, but still..... I don't think I could have photoshopped the pictures to look this way if I tried!

Promised Mike that the laundry would be off his chair, and in the closet when he gets home, so I better go give it a shot! Tomorrow we're going to Kaiserslautern Base, to check out the BX and Commissary. With Mike getting paid in dollars, it's actually more economical (for some stuff atleast)  to buy on base, so we're expanding our options, as well as "get away" for the day. Since it's almost a 4 hour drive, we're leaving here around 5 (eek!) and hope to be there when they open. I think Mike has an alterior motive though....  Captain America is playing in the theater on base, and I know I haven't seen it advertised for the theaters around here anywhere.

OH, before I forget.... the last step of the progressive scrap needs to be "in" tonight.... so I finished that right before I started this post.

Like usual, the page turned out a little strange, but.... that fits me! LOL

Talk to you soon. :-)

YUP, I'm at it again

In playing with StarSongs part of the HeritageScrap collab, I ventured into the family pictures that were slated for the family tree........ and I'm hooked again. As if I didn't have enough distractions from opening and sorting and putting away and planning on putting away of the boxes we have in the house!

I remembered I had a picture that I saved as "family picnic" and went looking for it...
well, I found it! LOL
While I was putting the page together, I realised that Mikes dad was not in the picture, neither was the youngest son or the father.... the backside had writing on it, that I also scanned when I scanned the photograph, but it didn't have a date. As far as I can find out in researching the park.... 3 bridges park, is in Texas, but the Tuffree's didn't have any family there (that I found) and neither did the Kelley side of this family unit.....

These discoveries have my brain itching with possibilities on so many levels...... and the only remedy would be to dig out the family tree and do research. Hence my dilemma LOL! But for now, my thoughts are these:
- The caption is not about the park in Texas, but a local-ish park with that name, either official or just a name the family gave it.... or they just went on vacation, and it IS the park in Texas. The picture is cropped, part of the writing on the back has been obliterated, and you really can't tell anything of the background, so that will have to stay a  mystery, unless somebody has the same picture somewhere, and the whole story :-)
- I have to find out if Mikes dad was the one taking the picture, where his father was, and where his youngest brother was..... By the age of the kids, I'd say Ben had already passed away, and maybe Keith hadn't been born yet (making the year the picture was taken: 1929, Lawrence 7 and too young to man a camera and too early for people to have their own camera, especially a young widow with 5 kids) Intriguing questions, that SO make me want to find the family tree and start digging again....
- The third puzzle is the Sellers.... There were no family relations, as far as I can remember, but they show up on 2 more pictures I have, so somehow they were important to the family....
OH YEAH! Family tree... I'm coming!

Here's the page I made. It will go in the family tree album, and next to it will come a blow-up of the picture. As soon as I get it cleaned up and restored LOL

I also heard from the doctor in Cedar Rapids.

Mike and I had remembered right, and I have no idea when/how or why halfway thru the treatment, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma replaced the original diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma. NOT a good thing. Even though its treatable, here in The Netherlands, it seems the survival chances are a lot lower than in The States.... Will we come to regret our decision to come home? I hope not. Maybe I should hold off on unpacking too many more boxes.......

Trouble

is what I'm in LOL

This morning, while he was getting ready for work, Mike looks at me and states: "I don't know how you're going to do it, but this weekend, the computer is mine!" You see, his computer doesn't go online yet, my mac is still out of commission, and my yellow box, still doesn't want to talk to the keyboard, so.... we only have one computer for the two of us...... and ever since I signed on, and started CT'ing for Star Song Studio.... I haven't left the computer .........I don't even mind the fact that I can't sleep!  Her kits are so cool. Everytime I look at them, I have more ideas in my head than it can hold. It's a good problem to have, but.... I should have cleaned house, gone for a walk and planned for the weekend. After I'm done posting here today, I'm going to do the right thing and shut the computer down until Mike wants it when he gets home.

There's stil time to fold laundry, do a load or two, pick up the house and vacuum before Mike gets here at 6.30. I'm even going to be able to get a start on dinner..... IF I hurry.

And tomorrow, while he's building SIMS I can do the paperwork, I should have done today. I DID go thru boxes yesterday, and have found the lockbox, but still no siting on my medical records. I have an email in to the doctors office, since Monday, but haven't heard. If I haven't heard by Monday night and haven't found them here, I'll give them a call....

The Progressive Scrap at DigiDesignResort is going ok. She's still trying to drive us nuts, but sofar, I don't think she has anybody throwing in the towel yet. 

Here's my step 3.  I like where it's going. Have the perfect pictures picked out already.... 

And here is my first attempt   E V E R   at a fantasy page!

The kit used is Forest Fantasy by StarSongStudio, and the picture was made by her hubby, Clemens. I saw it, and some others, on her blog, and asked if I could borrow one or a couple, and she sent them right over....... How cool is that!?

(I was secretly hoping that the puppy in her preview page was part of the kit, but I think it's her own)

The background wall I made from one paper in the kit. I cut strips, and used them in various stages of visibility, with a solid color background. The rest is "as is" from the kit.

I almost feel bad about taking credit for the pages.... The kits do all the work! LOL.

Well, IF I want to make this work, I'm going to shut down, and get busy!

And since I won't have access to the computer over the weekend, unless I can't sleep, I will wish all of you a very good weekend, with weather you enjoy! (For me it's thunderstorms, but I learned not to publicly wish for them.... it tends to upset people LOL)

Bye!

YEHA!

Well, it's one o'clock thursday morning, and I'm still up....

I keep going over the results that we got on Monday. There's a lump on my air-pipe. Nothing to worry about, because it's only 1 cm big, and if the slide would have been taken just a little bit more to one side or another, it wouldn't have even shown up at all........ So.... is that good news, or bad news? I don't know!

I'm desperately trying to find my medical records, so I can determine if the thing never went away (which would make it "good news" and only needs monitoring) or if it is new (which would make it bad news, because that means the cancer may be back!)  I have another appointment for a vein-hunt, I mean blood-test, end of August. If my blood shows signs of dead cells, it means I have to have another biopsy.... This sucks so bad, I can't find words.

BUT! I have decided, that I'm going to have good thoughts about this. After all, the "pac-man method" worked on getting me thru chemo, and my newly developed "I'm fit as a fiddle" method, will make the wait less stressful. Not to say that I don't have a constant stream of prayers going, but ..... Maybe the mind will heal the body.

On a lighter note..... Not sleeping has advantages... you have a lot of time in a day to get ideas! Couple that to not having been able to scrap for 4 months and you end up with.... 2 more pages LOL

Here they are. They are made with Star Song Studio's Sea Side kit. It is one of 4 or 5 kits I have seen in her stores. I bet, if you put all of them together, you'd never want for another nautical kit again, unless you want pirates :-) 

The pictures were taken in Domburg, Zeeland. I so missed going to the beach over the last couple of years. Hearing the tide, seeing the gulls dip in the water.... When we lived in Reno, the Ocean was only 5 hours away, but Iowa, Texas and Arizona were a whole different ballgame..... Now, we're only 4 hours away, that is, if I read the map right otherwise it takes a little longer LOL!

I like the pages, but I don't think they show off the kit to it's full extend. Being in the mood I'm in, I think I went for something to match my state of mind..... very subdued.

busy, busy

Well, I've been busy.
I've been going thru boxes, trying to find my medical records, and found..... clothes, our mini helmets, and paperwork, just not the kind I was looking for. So I'll go for try 3 tomorrow, but for today... I QUIT!

Couldn't sleep last night, so I played a bit. Finished step 2 of the progressive. Had a heck of a time with it. I have been trying to use 1 kit, SeaSide by StarSongStudio, but sofar, I've only been able to use a couple of things. Elaine is really pulling out the stops and coming up with wacky stuff to put in.  I thought, with the net of the first step, I could stick with anything maritime... but ... NOPE! Here's my interpretation of what was needed for this step.

While looking for things to put in the progressive, I came across some pictures my sister sent us last year of the pond maintenance.....  It's a little bright, but I like it :-)

Well, time to go fix dinner.

Progressive Scrap

Once again, I slid in at the last minute for the Progressive scrap at Digital Design Resort.  It's now 11.40, and it's due by midnight... so I have 20 minutes to spare!
I am trying to use as much as I can from Star Song Studio's Sea Side kit. Go check it out, it's on sale right now :-)

Here is my first step. No clue where I'm going with it, but than.... I rarely ever do LOL

Well, off to bed for me.  

All caught up....

with my commitments, except the newsletter... even finished the qp contest.  Photoshop Elements has some of the same things as Photoshop, but there are some things it just won't do. As it turns out, that are JUST the things I use a lot in photoshop.... go figure LOL

The kit used for the contest is Happiness by PrettyJu, as you can tell by the  preview :-)

I don't think all of the pages are up yet, but the ones that are.... WOW!

I'm still trying to figure out the rules, and hope I don't get disqualified because I missed something. Sofar I have read them about a dozen times, and every time something else catches my eye I don't remember seeing before......... so that's going to prove interesting!

Below are my entries for the IvyScraps Mega called Americana. I enjoyed working with it. It can go for patriotic, nautical but also heritage pages, without much trouble.

Here are my pages with it. Still haven't posted them at the other sites. Will do that tomorrow.

This page is soooo going to get me in trouble.... I'm a puppy of 2 countries! I thought I was going to have to make 2 pages, one for Holland, and one for Iowa because there is a challenge where you praise your country...... I thought it was IvyScraps, but I can't find it anymore.... so..... problem solved! LOL

That's it for me for today. Got to bed at 2.40 this morning, and was up again at 6.30, so..... needless to say, I'm a little bushed, but oddly enough, not sleepy.  

Two more days before the results. Mike is confident that it will turn out ok. I kinda sorta have the same thoughts, but have been burning candles just in case, as well as having a steady stream of short prayers going to the man upstairs .....

My experiences of the last week, with the rooting for a vein, has me terrified.  

So, I know that for most, it's still Saturday afternoon, but here it is almost 10.30 at night, and I'm going to see if I can sleep a little tonight.

Sweet Dreams :-)

Finally..... back to some kind of "normal"

Still working to get my baby going, but since I can scrap, it's not that urgent, although.... I have to link the July/August Newsletter for Flights of Fancy before too long, so I better not give up the search just yet!

Welll.... I worked hard today LOL!   Mike will probably not agree with me on that, since there is remarkably little done in way of housework, but;

- I finished the Bingo page. Can't show it here, it's for the winner over at IvyScraps. If I knew how to play Bingo, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot myself since we're not able to ever use the pages for ourselves. It came out nicely and I hope that who ever wins, enjoys it.

- Turned in my required ct pages, but haven't posted them on the 2 sister sites yet. I'll do that tomorrow, when I can think. I will post them here also.

- Finished my very first assignement for StarSong Studio for her new kit. It's going on sale on the 19th, so go check it out. In the time that I have signed up with her, she has finished a couple of really awesome kits, and if she'll let me, I'd be "willing" to play with them! LOL

- Picked up the kit for the QP challenge over at CoolScrapDigital and will start on that on Sunday. Was going to do that today, but there was a snafu in the scheduling, and today they changed Mikes day off to tomorrow, instead of Sunday. Just for this rotation, so it's not really bad, but I'm not as flexible as I once was.... If they throw something like that at me, I tend to panic these days, instead of just changing my plans from one day to another.... Could it have something to do with old age? I wonder...........

I also discovered something.... I'm an "in between puppy" when it comes to calling one country or another home! I am seriously missing Iowa. Even though I'm "home" since I'm born here, my heart belongs there......... a very strange feeling indeed.

I have to get back to digging thru boxes for my medical records. Went to the hospital on Monday, and had a somewhat emergency CT on Wednesday. Expecting the result on Monday, and was asked to bring them.... The CT was not planned. It was only supposed to be a blood check and xray, so I'm having a fit every time I sit down with nothing to do. I SOOOOOO don't want to go thru this again! It was like being back in Texas, where it seemed as if they let the janitor put in the IV. It took them 4 tries on Monday, and 5 on Wednesday..... so knowing that I will never be able to have a life-port again because of blood clots, seriously freaks me out. I'm hoping that scrapping will continue to be my mental escape..... I'll let you know Tuesday if the news was good or otherwise. In the meantime, if you will, send me some happy thoughts?

It's almost 2.30 AM, so I think I'm going to see if I can sleep a little. Mike has been snoozing for a couple of hours, and I haven't seen my fuzzy companion in a while, so I think I'm going to have to check my pillow before I put my head down, so I don't squash him......

Good night all, and I'll post the pages and links tomorrow or Sunday.

Hi there,

so sorry to have been absent again. But I had a good reason. Actually, there were a couple, but there is one that has me in severe distress.... I blew up my MAC!

It went more "POP!" than "KABLOOI" but the result was the same... It's deader than a doornail. I wanted to link the newsletter for Flights of Fancy real quick, so that Pat could post it, and didn't have to keep asking, and I forgot to switch the voltage before I put the plug in the wall......... So now I'm frantically searching for a powersupply for an 11 year old mac!  And than, there's the little issue of my "yellow box" aka, our only functioning Windows computer..... The monitor works, the box works, the keyboard and mouse turn on, but somehow, they're not talking to the computer!

BUT! You didn't come by to hear me moan, so that's it for me. On to nicer things. Although I haven't been able to scrap, I haven't been completely out of touch.
           * I added a commitment to a designer. StarSong Studio from DigiDesignResort.
           * I'm still scheduled to put out the newsletter for Flights of Fancy.
              We're going to combine July and August, and start back up on a regular
              schedule by September 15th.  This should give me time to get sorted out.
           * The new IvyScraps Mega is out, and I'm making the Bingo-page this month.
              As soon as I get the links to the kit, I'm going to do my pages.
           * I signed up for a Quick Page competition that starts on the 15th
           * I JUST posted the Point in TIme challenge at DigitalScrapbookingStudio....
              Not because I didn't know what to do, but because I didn't remember I hadn't
              done it yet!!  So that challenge will now run until August 15th.

We still have an amazing amount of crap that hasn't found a spot yet, but I have the attention span of a gnat, so, even though it bothers me, I don't seem to get going on them as I should. We have decided we WILL go and get cabinets, just haven't decided what kind. I like oak, and so does Mike, and believe it or not, there is A LOT of it around here, but he doesn't want to have to move it again. And we kinda both agree that this place is not our final destination, so ....... until we sort that out, we unpack what we need, and repack when we're done!

well, I think you're up to date again. And it seems as if I'm finally getting a handle on some sort of a schedule, so who knows..... I may just be back tomorrow! LOL

Stay safe, have fun, and "see" you soon!